artificial
by thesweetsummerchilde
Summary: because they all are the victims of this treacherous life. experimental piece - ozlice, ozecho


**Rated: T for mention of death, implied sex *guilty guilty* and angst.**

 **Summary:** Because they all are the victims of this treacherous life.

 **Author's Note:** Yep! I am back to Pandora Hearts fandom! Anyone miss me?

No? Awww... *sulk in the dark corner* You guys just want to break my heart, do you?

ANYWAY, this piece of work can be found a little complicated... So if you finish reading this and still don't understand what the heck this is about, just read the author's note at the end of the fanfic.

Enjoy, and remember to review!

 **Dedication:** This fic is dedicated to **Leio13** , **aliceozforever** and **Ame No Mikoto**. Thank you soooooo much for your reviews!

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Pandora Hearts. If I did, it would no longer be a manga but a horror novel already. And I can't draw :v**

* * *

 _What's in the thing? That which we call a rose_

 _By any other name would smell as sweet._

 _\- Shakespeare,_ Romeo and Juliet _-_

* * *

Everything was spinning, spinning...

The sky was pitch black, an endless darkness, walls twisting and merging, the floor a shaking ground.

Broken shards and destroyed remnant of the room were slowly fading away, into gray ash, into nothing.

The voice of someone echoed back in his eardrums, someone very _familiar_ , maybe that was Gil...

"Oz! We have to leave _now_!"

Abyss... Was renewing itself...

Erasing the traces of every loneliness, every despair, every madness carved in...

Erasing every bit of human's touch on it, going back to be the untamed, wild, _glorious_ dimension, far out of human's reach...

Erasing Alice...

The sun...

The memories of her were forever there, on the back of their minds; the bright smiles and those crystalline teardrops, they couldn't just be deleted easily like _that._..

His lips curled up slightly.

It was all just _fate_ , wasn't it?

Fate tells you "Ok, you can live.", and you are allowed to exist. It screams "Die!", then you disappear. "Go to hell", death says, and you are doomed. Simple.

It was unfair.

Life was unfair.

 _Fate_ was unfair.

 _Everything_ was unfair.

'Alice's were granted the escape, a way out of this lonely life, of this twisted world, of this madness.

And how would he get away from them...?

He leaned down. Carved in those emerald orbs were the limp figure...

Redness streamed down her lips, running wildly on her face. A whole garden of red roses, blossomed and grew on her...

Violet eyes wide open, staring at nothing in a sightless look. Red lips paled, cold. Brown silky hair sprawled all over the floor, thickened with matted blood that looked like blackness...

 _She is not going to die._

He chanted frantically in his head, words were a mantra repeating over and over again, syllables blending and mixing, made him drunk in fright and kept his mind unstable...

 _She is not going to die._

Will of the Abyss was gone, changing into many sakura petals, and it was only a matter of time before his Alice did the same...

 _She is not going to die._

Gil was calling him again, voice filled with urge this time.

His trembling lips brushed gently over her cold ones.

Oz looked at her one last time. Drinking her existence in his eyes, not ready to forget, no...

 _She is not going to die._

His words, barely a whisper, breezed on her skins.

"I will be back."

"I promise."

 _She is not going to die._

* * *

When he came back the second time, she looked different.

Her petite form was leaning on the wall, her crimson coat stained red and tattered.

Pale, delicate face wasn't covered in blood anymore, but her eyes shut closed. Dark hair streamed down the wall, blood thickened into a sickening state.

The blond teenager pressed his ear against her wrist.

There was barely a faint _thump_. Faint, but still there nonetheless. A pulse.

 _She is alive._

Without second thought, Oz lift her up.

* * *

Opening his eyes, the first sight greeted him was his wife. Her hair spread out on the white pillow like a halo. Beautiful eyes were closed, deep in a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

Long calloused fingers slightly stroked her silky hair.

His brows suddenly knitted.

Why is the brown hair so light-coloured?

 _Maybe that's just an illusion_ , he told himself, _just an illusion, created by the dim sunlight..._

Standing up, Oz slowly wore his white shirt.

"Alice, are you awake?"

She was sound asleep, but Oz could swear he saw a waterdrop at the corner of her almond-shaped eye.

The slight frown deepened.

What's wrong? He didn't say anything wrong...

"Don't cry, Alice..."

"I love you..."

The tear rolled down her pearly white cheek

* * *

There were moments that Oz regretted his decision.

These moments were the times her eyes were like that. Not empty, not cold, but full of a nameless emotion.

She didn't like the complicated dresses.

She didn't like staying here, in the huge, magnificent castle, where everyone bow their heads at her presence and call her "Miss Alice", or worse, "Alice Vessalius".

She didn't like living like this, wandering around aimlessly like a ghost, a soul that can never really rest in peace.

Oz saw everything. And at those times, he regretted forcing this life on her. Forcing her to become who she wasn't.

But the remorse past everytime.

He was selfish, he knew it.

But if Alice was gone...

Then who would he be?

If there was no sun, would there be any life?

 _No._

He couldn't live without _her_.

He just couldn't.

Even those eyes couldn't change his decision.

* * *

She opened her eyes. Her gaze lingered at the door frame, where his figure just disappear.

The watery trail on her cheek was drying, ticking her smooth skin, but she didn't brush it.

The girl sat up, slowly made her way to the mirror.

Her hand gently combed the silky hair.

She had wanted this life. She had dreamt, countless dreams, about being his wife, being the person who has his heart. Who wakes up with him every morning, brushing his messy morning hair. Who can taste his lips. Who hears the three words "I love you" coming from him.

She had desperately wished to be the person Oz Vessalius can't live without.

But she didn't wish, she never wished for things to be like this...

He loved _her_. But at the same time he didn't love her.

His feeling for her was just a brother's feeling for his little sister: plain, simple, _platonic_. Painfully _platonic_.

And that was at times Oz recognized her.

Otherwise, he loved her, passionately, deeply, loved her with the love she desired.

But he was just fooling himself.

Looking at the mirror, big, cerulean eyes stared back at herself.

Echo hated, hated this life.

She hated Oz's love, because it just wasn't for _her_.

She hated Alice, because she was the only one Oz ever loved. The only one he loves. The only one he will love.

But over all, she hated herself. For wanting the love which wasn't for her. For fooling herself. For being pathetic. For desperately wanted that love, that she lowered herself. For accepting to be someone else's shadow, just for _it_.

Wearing the contact lens, using the wig, and a stranger was looking back at her from the mirror.

She hated those thing.

Because they could easily change her into someone she didn't know.

And no one could point out the difference between Echo and Alice.

Even Echo herself.

 _You are not... her. You could never be **her**. _ [1]

* * *

[1]: This is a quote from _The Scorch Trial_ , the second book from _Maze Runner Trilogy_.

 **Author's Note:** If you still don't get it, I will explain the plot here. This story is a twist from Retrace 90, I made it that Echo didn't die, only Zwei did. And when the group came to Abyss and Oz killed both Alice, Oz didn't die. They had to come back to the world, and he promised Alice to come back for her. However, when he did, he only find an unconscious Echo. Oz brought her back and lulling himself into thinking that Echo was Alice, not to mention making Echo disguised herself as Alice too.

Sooooo... Any review?


End file.
